Ch3 02

I’m sure that everything is normal. I’m sure this is all business as usual. I’m also sure that Hass is really wishing she had taken Lark’s advice originally and just taken one of those guys home… Or two…

There will be no review this week. Tune in next week for a review that is out of this world!

Okay, LOL I tried reloading this page twice, because I thought the bottom of it got cut off… With the stroke around the bottom two panels my brain was trying to make them go all the way around them….

And out of curiosity, does magical ice melt?? Curious because if it does, shouldn’t there be some water stains in the room or trickles running down the side of the inn? If it DOESN’T Lark is going to need a jackhammer to free his foot. 😛

‘Fine’ goes from anywhere between: Knocked out a wall to destroying a single house.
‘Not so fine’ goes from: Knocked out/beat up a dragon to destroying a castle
‘Why do we keep letting him do this’ goes from: Annihilating a whole town to Being involved in a Godspell incident.
‘Seriously, why? (Has only happened once)’ starts at: Almost destroying all of Alteria for a perfectly spherical cake.

But if you want to share it with everyone, then you have to cut it. Which introduces corners, exposes non-frosted interior surfaces, and generally mucks up the previous state of “perfectly” spherical. Topology!
Depending on who was invited to that party, I can see why crafting such a cake might have almost destroyed all of Alteria. The solution would have been for the pastrymancer to summon one for each attendee.

Wait wait wait. If they’re bonded, are they supposed feel each other’s emotions and/or sensations??? Cause damn that would suck. Mostly for Lark since his guardians get dead so quickly, but I can’t imagine that would be horribly comfortable for the guardian in many situations either. Just think of all the things you’d have to ‘share’: hangovers, stubbed toes, cramps, need to pee, tiredness, intimate relations with elves, arrows through limbs, hunger… The list is endless. Goodness that would not be pleasant at all. 😫

The Bonding Ritual does not give you a wide variety of emotions once you’re tethered to the other individual via essence. Rather, it gives you this nagging feeling in the back of your mind. Certain heightened states of emotion can be felt (Yes. That kind, too) but they are not at the same degree. There isn’t a feedback loop that causes both of the people tethered to experience the same intensity of the emotion.

For the most part, it works like a muted awareness beacon. So long as the partners are on the same plane, they are aware of the other person being there, though only through peripheral senses. It’s not like they can close their eyes and simply know where their bound partner is. It takes years of practice to properly use the tether for things like locating the tethered partner.

As previously mentioned, certain emotions are relayed to one another, as are overall sentiments. If one partner does not trust someone they are talking to, the other will get a sense of that. If one partner is in the middle of doing the horizontal mambo, the other partner will simply know that the partner is engaged in some kind of physical activity.

Every pairing is different. Some connections are so strong that a full range of emotion can be transmitted to the other partner involuntarily, others are so non-compatible that all they get the equivalent of a sore gut when the other is around. In very rare circumstances does a partner’s emotional state superimpose itself on their partner.

For this reason, it’s incredibly common for Guardians and Champions to end up together. In the event that we are seeing here, Lark is pointing out a nagging sensation that the two are feeling – a shared sensation that if drawn attention to, becomes clear.

And to add – yes. Death when tethered is an incredibly painful process. They don’t tell Guardians or Champions that in the Academy or the Hall. When a Guardian perishes, their tether to the Champion is severed as their essence is pulled to the Strife. This has a way of literally tearing out essence of the Champion – a painful process that usually leaves the Champion weakened, emotionally distant and incredibly hostile due to their weakened state. The same can be said for a Champion dying, but due to Guardians having never gone through the Essence Weaving Trials, they tend to be hit tenfold, if not utterly obliterated essence-wise.

As we can see from Lark’s current attitude – he’s gotten used to it.

This information will be given in tidbits throughout the story. I just figured you all would love to know what being tethered to an individual entails.

We already know why the bonding ritual is required for Guardians and Champions, as it was detail on a previous page. I’m going to get to work on that wiki…